Hearts and The Heartless

Emily stared into those words whenever she turned on a new leaf. Sometimes she laughed slightly, or frowned a little when she read them, but nothing reminded her to any of them. She sat on a swing, alone, with a pink flowery diary on her palms. She found the diary this morning when she was raiding her room. Most of the stories in the diary was about her crushes at school, and her enemies. At the front cover of the diary it wrote; Property of Emily Roseville, Do Not Read without Permission. The handwritings were girly and teeny, so it was quite difficult for Emily to understand.

July 21,
I was having my lunch with Rowena and Kate, and then I saw Francis by the fountain with his friends. Oh my God! He was so cute, I couldn’t take my eyes away from him even for a second. I noticed Rowena started to get sick of me being all over him, but I can’t help it! Oh I wish Francis will look into my eyes for once..

p/s : Rachel Graham was the meanest girl I’ve ever seen.

Emily frowned and shook her head once. She noticed that the p/s note came in every leaf, and in every leaf, she just wrote about a boy named Francis. Who is this Francis? She didn’t remember.
“Reading ‘Boys Inquirer’?”
Emily jumped slightly; it made the swing sounded like clinging steel. She looked around and found River, approaching her from behind and suddenly sat next to her. The playground seemed empty but the two of them.
“River! You...came back.” She tried to find the exact word to describe the situation but then she felt unhappy with her choice of word.
“I did. For you.”
“For me? Why?”
“Because you’re special, Emily.”
Emily blushed to this.
“You look beautiful today.”
“Thank you, River. You look...the same.” She studied him and realized that he wore the same suit and tie when they were first met.
River smiled.
“How are you?” she started when they were both being quiet for a while.
“Don’t mind me, how are you?”
“I’m fine, trying hard though.”
“Good, so, how many crushes you had back in the day?” he pointed his mouth to the diary on her palms.
“Oh, there’s only one, his name was Francis.”
“Hmm...I wonder what he looked like.”
Emily smiled.
“I hope he looked like you,” she mumbled without knowing.
“Excuse me?” he raised his left eyebrow.
“Did I just say that out loud? I...I...”
River laughed. Emily stunned, his laugh looked like a real happiness to her. She wanted to be the reason he laugh, that time. But he really did laughing at her.
“What’s so funny?”
“Oh, good, you knew when people laugh, there is something funny happen,”
“Don’t mock me, River.”
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry.” He put up both of his hands and stopped laughing slowly.
“I’m sorry,” he repeated, but this time it sounded sad, and heartily.
“That’s ok, I’m experiencing it for the first time, anyway.”
Then silence fell again. But then he spoke.
“There’s something I want you to know, Emily.”
Emily waited, but he paused to stare into her eyes. When she blinked them, then he continued.
“I am here to help you remember.”
Emily sighed.
“So are they. My family. They’ve promised to take me to the places I’ve been before.”
River raised his eyebrow.
“So, you agreed?”
“I told them to do whatever they want, but it’s useless. I can’t remember anything. I’m like an idiot, I must be an idiot...”
“No, no, don’t talk like that. You are not an idiot, as far as I know, you are the smartest, funniest, most beautiful woman, ever.”
Emily stared at him. His turquoise blue eyes strike again.
“How do you know that?”
His facial expression changed. He looked down to his feet.
“Who are you, River?”
His head still looking down, his hands clutching his hair and messed it up, and Emily saw a clenched jaw moment while he silenced.
“River, I’m asking you, who are you?”
River looked up, his eyes looked weary, but he stared deeply into Emily’s emerald eyes with hope.
“Look, if we were friends before, I am sorry. I can’t remember you.” Emily retreated her body a bit away from him.
“I know. I just wish I can touch you now.”
“Touch me? What do you mean?”
He didn’t answer. His jaw still clenching as he rubbed his knuckles a couple of times.
“I can’t tell you who I am. You have to ask your family.”
Then River stood up, gazed into Emily’s eyes for a second and then he disappeared behind brick walls.

The moment Emily walked into her house, he searched for Dorothy everywhere.
“Dorothy?”
She searched in the living room, none.
“Dorothy?”
Then in the kitchen, none.
“Dorothy?”
In the laundry room, none. Emily climbed upstairs and tried to call her name again but then paused when she heard voices talking in conversation, but in low tone.
“How do you think this would happen, Murray? She doesn’t remember us, but she remembers him! I heard she said his name in the hospital, and a couple of time in her sleep!”
“Please, Dorothy, you’re being a little overreacting. Maybe that’s the only memory she had, with River. We couldn’t blame her for that.”
Emily stunned, her jaw dropped. Murray just said his name, River. But how do they know him? What memory she had with him?
“Oh, how can I not being overreacting? I am her mother, you’re her father and the only thing she remembers is that obnoxious boy!”
“Oh, come on! Don’t be such a cruel, he’s not obnoxious, he’s fine.”
“Don’t you use that tone, as if he still...”
Emily didn’t realize when did she end up standing in front of their room, with them looking at her in horror struck.
“Murray, Dorothy, what are you guys talking about?”
They looked at each other in shock.
“Who is River actually?”
Emily moved forward and they backed away a little.
“Honey, you’re home! How’s the book coming on? What do you want for dinner?” Dorothy tried to avoid.
“I’m asking you who is River in my life?” she insisted.
“Daughter, calm down. Sit here.”
Murray took her shoulder and brought her to a comfortable sofa in the corner of the room.
“Murray, who’s River?”
“He is...”
Murray paused, looked at his wife for a while – who shook her head – and continued.
“...your husband, dear.”
Emily froze. Her eyes fixed upon her father’s, trying not to believe. The first person that she ever spoke to after she woke up, the one who told her about herself, him, River. Was her husband all along.
“Where...where does he live?” of all the questions that summed up in her mind, this came through her mouth first.
“Miami, why, do you want to go there?”
Emily looked up, Dorothy cried away. She took a while to consider this, but eventually she nodded.